| PAGE | |||
| I. | HARVEY’S LINEAGE | [1] | |
| II. | EARLY LIFE | [11] | |
| III. | THE LUMLEIAN LECTURES | [39] | |
| IV. | THE ZENITH | [70] | |
| V. | THE CIVIL WAR | [117] | |
| VI. | HARVEY’S LATER YEARS | [141] | |
| VII. | HARVEY’S DEATH, BURIAL, AND EULOGY | [166] | |
| VIII. | HARVEY’S ANATOMICAL WORKS | [188] | |
| IX. | THE TREATISE ON DEVELOPMENT | [238] | |
| APPENDIX | [267] | ||
| INDEX | [271] | ||
WILLIAM HARVEY
I
Harvey’s Lineage
The history of the Harvey family begins with Thomas Harvey, father of William, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. The careful search of interested and competent genealogists has ended in the barren statement that the family is apparently descended from, or is a branch of the same stock as, Sir Walter Hervey, “pepperer,” or member of the ancient guild which afterwards became the important Company of Grocers. Sir Walter was Mayor of London in the year reckoned from the death of Henry III. in November, 1272. It was the noise of the citizens assembled in Westminster Hall clamouring for Hervey’s election as Mayor that disturbed the King’s deathbed.
The lineage would be a noble one if it could be established, for Hervey was no undistinguished Mayor. He was the worthy pupil and successor of Thomas Fitzthomas, one of the great champions in that struggle for liberty which ended in the death of Simon de Montfort, between Evesham and Alcester, but left the kingdom with a Parliament. Hervey’s counsels reconstituted in London the system of civic government, and established it upon its present base; for he assumed as chief of the executive the right to grant charters of incorporation to the craftsmen of the guilds. For a time his efforts were successful, and they wrought him much harm. But his idea survived, and in due season prevailed, for the companies have entirely replaced the guilds not only in London but throughout England.
It would be truly interesting if the first great discoverer in physiology could be shown to be a descendant of this original thinker on municipal government. The statement depends for the present on the fact that both bore for arms “argent, two bars nebulée sable, on a chief of the last three crosses pattée fitchée; with the crest, a dexter hand appaumée proper, over it a crescent inverted argent,” but arms were as often assumed in the reign of Elizabeth as they are in the Victorian era.